Bulldogs march on

14 points from Bulldogs winger Hazem El Masri has helped his team post a 19-12 victory over the Penrith Panthers in front of 14,000 fans at ANZ Stadium to open Round 15 of the Telstra Premiership.

The Panthers started strongly and posted an unexpected early lead with the opening try to Gavin Cooper after only six minutes of play. The visitors had plenty of other opportunities as the Bulldogs seemed determined to turn the ball over as often as possible, but an unusual Penrith tactic of trying to run the ball on the last tackle more often than not proved to make their job a lot more difficult.

Veteran Bulldogs halfback Brett Kimmorley sparked an equaliser later in the first half after dummying through the line before linking up with his support. That was to be the last of the scoring action for the first half, the 6-all scoreline staying in place despite some razzle-dazzle play in the closing minutes of the first forty.